The Workshop on AI in Testing (WAIT) #2 WAIT is a small, two-day, online, non-commercial, LAWST-style peer conference. Facilitator Jon Bach Content Owner James Bach Dates May 18-19 2024 Times 7am-1pm PDT (16:00-22:00 UTC+2) Media Zoom Attendees Up to 20 Who can attend? We are looking for people with experience testing AI systems and/or applying […] The post WAIT#2 Call for Participation appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

Once in a while, I see bizarre posts on LinkedIn, purportedly by experienced programmers, claiming that testers aren’t needed because unit testing, developer discipline, and, I guess “clean livin'” is enough for any developer to produce bug free code. In their world-view, testers make you weak. I kind of understand the feeling, because I feel […] The post Inevitability of Bugs: An Example appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

I’m the opposite of an AI fanboy. I’ve been arguing against the grandiose claims of the AI industry for decades. But the days are over when I can make an occasional case against it and then go back to doing real work. AI is now good enough that lots of foolish people will try to […] The post WAIT #1 Peer Conference Report appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

My favorite work has been as an expert witness on court cases involving software. I love working with lawyers, because they are very smart, highly motivated, learn fast, but don’t know much about software technology. Never do I feel more needed. I’ve done a patent infringement case (went to jury and we won), a trade […] The post Tester as Expert Witness appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

Once in a while, when I claim that there are fools out there who want to destroy the culture and craft of testing, some people don’t believe me. So, here is a good example of what I’m talking about: Tests are Bad for Developers. The post is by Stephan Schmidt. He says he has 40+ […] The post A Good Example of a Stupid Idea: Testers Shouldn’t Test appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

Stockton Rush is dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. He was killed in a spectacular implosion of the Titan submersible during a dive to the site of the wreck of the Titanic, on Father’s Day, 2023. This implosion is proof, beyond any conceivable rational doubt, that Stockton Rush’s engineering judgment […] The post A Tester Debates a Dead Man appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

This challenge is frequently posed by boosters of AI: if a bot were smart enough to be completely indistinguishable from a natural human, wouldn’t it be moral and correct for it to have civil rights? Wouldn’t it be wrong to “kill” such a creature? My answer is that such a creature cannot be given civil […] The post Thinking Critically About AI appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

Muhammad Saad wrote an interesting scenario on LinkedIn. I will represent it here in italics and comment on it… Imagine yourself on the first day at your job as a tester. You are presented with an application to be tested. It’s an ERP application containing 100s of forms and thousands of reports. You begin your […] The post I’m a Tester, Not an Automation Manager appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

This question came up in the recently Rapid Software Testing Explored online class. Donatas asks: “Let’s say you discover a problem in the application or the development process itself. However, it doesn’t get the attention it needs, but you believe that it should. How to you convince the others? What are the recommended ways to […] The post Persuasion for Testers appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more

This past Friday, May 21st, 2021, was exactly 34 years since my first day at Apple Computer as a tester. Before that I was a dev, but I have been a tester ever since. This has put me in a retrospective mood. The industry has gone through changes, yes, but it seems to me there […] The post 34 Years in Testing appeared first on Satisfice, Inc ..read more